A new drop for precious metals and oil

Noble metals and oil dropped today after the US dollar rises again. Gold again returned at a trading rate of $1,210, and we can see a psychological limit test of $1,200 per ounce.
The silver is traded at levels of $15.30 per ounce, or close to the lowest levels for the last one year. Platinum is exchanged at 825 dollars per ounce.
Meanwhile, the price of oil fell somewhat after its strong rise at the start of the week. Data released indicated a reduction in oil and petroleum stocks in the United States, in enforced sanctions against Iran.
US crude oil fell by nearly 30 cents to $69 a barrel, and the Brent to $73.80 a barrel.
We can recall that the Brent came back at trading levels above $74 a barrel after US sanctions against Iran came into force yesterday. It is expected Iran's production to cut by about 1 million barrels, from its current level to nearly 3 million barrels.

ActivTrades Education: Free Webinars

My favorite broker ActivTrades always helds very useful free webinars along with its amazing useful education resources.
Free webinars help traders build their trading skills and strategies. ActivTrades always invite the leading finance professionals to host the events.

ActivTrades' webinars cover the following topics:
- Techical Analysis;
- Fundamental Analisys;
- Trading Psychology;
- Trading Tools;
and much more.

The next webinar will be held on August 14, 7pm-8pm. The guest speaker Martin Wallace will discuss Common Patterns.

To see the full list of upcoming events and to register, click here.

J. Gundlach: Decrease your US stocks positions!

The popular investor, Jeffrey Gundlach, advised investors to cut their exposure to US stocks and diversify them with other markets, such as India and Japan.
In an interview, the head of DoubleLine Capital also said he expects at least two Fed rises in interest rates this year.
Gundlach, confirmed his position from last June that an increase in 10-year US Treasury interest rates, above the psychological limit of 3%, would cause serious trouble for US stocks. Such an action would certainly mark the end of the three-decades-long bullish bond market.
Gundlach's position is very close to that of another legendary bond investor, Bill Gross, according to which bonds will enter the bear market when interest rates on 10-year securities are 2.6%. And these interest rates had already passed.
With regard to shares, Gundlach reaffirmed his view that other markets, beyond the US, are far cheaper and have a significant catching-up potential.

The Fed still has time to observe the dynamics of employment

The statistics on the labor market published in the US turned out to be quite contradictory. On the one hand, the published data, including statistics on the growth rates of wages in July, coincided with market expectations (an increase of 2.7% year-on-year). But the data on unemployment and the number of jobs created outside the agricultural sector, diverged with market expectations. The unemployment rate in the US in July fell below 4% of the working-age population and was 3.9%. To a record low of May 2018 (3.8%), unemployment this time did not reach, but is already approaching this level, and the US economy - to full employment.
As for the number of new jobs outside agriculture, their number in July was 157 thousand, which is 17% below market expectations. In principle, this meaning can be further clarified or revised by the US Department of Labor, however, it may be that the dynamics of this indicator may again postpone the increase in the interest rate in the United States. It is usually believed that an increase of this figure by 200 thousand jobs a month adds about 3% to the US GDP. Now the growth was much less.
Fed noted that when deciding on the interest rate, inflation indicators and labor market conditions are necessarily taken into account. It's not excluded that at the next meeting the Fed can again postpone the decision to raise the interest rate, if this indicator of the labor market will again grow at such a low pace. However, it is possible that this is a temporary phenomenon, most likely related to seasonal factors, this indicator has a property to fluctuate strongly from month to month, so the Fed has time to observe the dynamics of employment and assess the state of the labor market.

Pound fell to 11-day low due to BoE concern

Today, the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has completed what he did not finish yesterday - expressed obvious concern about Brexit without an agreement.
Carney said in an interview with BBC Radio that the possibility of Brexit without an agreement is inconveniently high.
According to him, it is absolutely in the interests of the UK and the EU to have a transitional agreement, Brexit without an agreement is highly undesirable. This Brexit is likely to mean higher prices over a period of time.
After these comments, the pound sterling fell to an 11-day low.
On Thursday the Bank of England raised interest rates, but at a subsequent press conference, Mark Carney said that there are signs of a softening of business confidence. He also noted that the negotiations between Great Britain and the EU are in a critical phase. All this contributed to the fall of the pound. In addition, as The Guardian, the pound fell against the backdrop of Carney's phrase that monetary policy should walk, and not run, to stay in place, as the natural level of interest rates is slowly rising.
Officials of the Bank of England's committee yesterday also said that to restrain consumer inflation, there will be a constant tightening, but based on futures on central bank funds, investors do not expect a further rate hike until next year.

What to expect from NASDAQ?

In recent days, the big US and European indices have experienced difficulties and slowed their growth amid worries about a global trade war. Tensions between the United States and China continue to rise after US Trade Representative Robert Laitizer announced that the US is considering increasing duties from 10% to 25%.
Looking at what is happening with the NASDAQ index and the rest of the world's largest indexes since the beginning of the year, we will notice that at the end of January we had a fairly deep correction (around 12-13% on NASDAQ). But this adjustment was very easily accepted by the market and new buyers quickly entered.
After this correction, which ended in February, the S&P 500 and Dow Jones did not manage to mark new highs. The same thing happened in the European indexes. Only the French CAC40 managed to reach a new peak, but failed to keep it. In contrast, NASDAQ gained a 6% lead and remained the only bullish base index.
The technology companies that have the greatest weight in the so-called FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) and Apple continue to grow (except for the results of the reports).
This means that cash managers are starting to invest in just one group of shares, and if there will be some adjustment in these companies, there will be tremendous problems for long positions in NASDAQ.
Still, my expectations are that NASDAQ is likely to continue to rise in the short to medium term (next 1-2 weeks).

The metals and the brent become cheaper

The appreciation of the US dollar after the Fed hinted that it would raise more interest rates this year, had an adverse effect on the prices of precious metals and oil.
Silver fell to 15.40 dollars per ounce, while platinum fell to 815 dollars per ounce. Gold is traded early this morning at $1,217 an ounce.
Oil has also been affected by the appreciation of green money and has continued its decline since the last two days. On Wednesday the raw material lost 2.5% of its value.
Earlier this morning, the Brent was traded at $71.90 a barrel and US crude at $68.4.
Oil prices are influenced by the effects of continuing tensions in world trade, but market participants are worried about any slowdown in economic growth around the world.